I’m not sure that anyone else has seen Rufus, as it’s Beta, but it seems that it’s not just the sellers that are being exposed to 30 year old programming standards; on the buyer side, when I open a page, I’m now getting an AI named Rufus popping up to “help”, by suggesting questions that it doesn’t know the answer to!
It reminds me of Clippy, which was just as useful and no more annoying.
I was just going to write about it. It’s annoying the heck out of me… should we be concerned that it might drive customers away? I personally hate this kind of sh*t be forced upon myself as a customer.
I think so. Makes me want to explore other places to buy things that don’t do stuff like this. And if it makes a seller want to go elsewhere, what’s to keep a buyer there?
I’m assuming if Amazon sees decreased customer traffic as a result, they might reconsider their approach.
Rufus was fully rolled out. It was in BETA for months and on our listings.
Another REALLY poorly rolled out piece of AI / Piece of ■■■■!
Personally, I’m more worried about Rufus putting someone in the hospital - or even an early grave.
Ran across this NSFE post today:
I had a look @ that ASIN’s PDP for the US Marketplace:
https: //www.amazon.com/Italian-Cookie-Traditional-Holiday-Cookies/dp/B07YGS4G53
The Product Description appears thusly (emphasis mine):
The ‘About this item’ section - which has always been governed by AI implementations ever since it was first introduced some years back, albeit some manipulation of results is possible if one knows what they’re doing - is apparently what Dufus Rufus is keying on, specifically the 5th “Bullet Point” here (again, emphasis mine):
One of the pre-selected questions for Rufus is "Are these cookies suitable for nut allergies?
Engaging Rufus for that question yielded this response:
“The product description states these cookies are nut-free. However, I would recommend consulting with your doctor before consuming if you have a severe nut allergy, as the manufacturing facility may process nuts.”
For the ‘AI-generated answer feedback’ Satisfaction Survey, I selected the 3rd choice, “This is harmful / unsafe.”
The theme of the NSFE discussion where the above-quoted post was made is Hijacking/Co-opting, so it’s entirely possible that the infamous “Keyword Sabotage” phenomenon - which has so-egregiously given Bad (and/or Ignorant) Actors a leg-up on damaging the competition over the last 11 years or more - is actually what produced that obviously-false 5th Bullet Point (a supposition which seems to supported by the assertion of OP of that post, re: another entity had been found to have co-opted their images).
However, using the RAV Tool (link, Brand Registry 2.0) to investigate Offer-Listings for that ASIN in the 22 Global Marketplaces it currently supports* yields only results for the Japan Marketplace (Amazon.co.jp - which is unsurprising, because the programming of the RAV Tool (among certain others of Amazon’s implementations) does a piss-poor job of interpreting both Kana and its ideograms, meaning that almost any ASIN one checks w/ that tool will return results which are improper - so I don’t think it can be ruled out that Amazon’s automated mechanisms might not have taken it upon themselves to add this flagrant error w/out the affected seller having made a mistake in supplying input.
Sigh.
The Editorial Team, which has for many years been notoriously slow in updating content, has yet to modify SHC (“Seller Help Content”) and other web pages - up to and including “About Amazon” blog posts - which specify there being only 21 Global Marketplaces (Amazon.cn, the 23rd, is a special case which has never been supported by the RAV Tool) to reflect this year’s oft-delayed launch of the South African Marketplace, Amazon.co.za.
Yet another example of just how disjointed Amazon has become with its bloated, well-siloed support infrastructure, unfortunately…
I haven’t seen RUFUS yet.
Those cookies look delicious but at $30/pound they will not be coming to me. I can even in the aftermath of inflation probably find them for $12/lb which is still high in my book.
I do understand the need for AI when shopping. So many buyers are ignorant of what they buy, what they should buy and where they should buy it. I seem less tolerant every day of the rampant stupidly of the social media reared segment of the population.
Rufus only appears on my mobile app and I can’t downgrade without sideloading an old version. I also gave them an unsafe feedback both to hopefully help the seller and because I intensely dislike Rufus.
Those cookies look delicious though. And it is pay day. While I may not have much of a sweet tooth I may give those a shot. We have a fantastic local Italian deli and market but I haven’t seen those before.
Edited to add: It looks like you may be paying mostly for shipping. I’m not sure if it comes in a box with cooler packs or not. You can get twice as many for only $3 more.
I see it on desktop. It’s virtually useless, just like all of Amazon’s “improvements”
It is possible my ad blocker is preventing it. But I’d really rather not have it pop up in more places so I’ll just leave that running.
It’s easy to miss and Amazon has been moving it around alot. It was in a more prominent place just 24 hours ago. I have a great place for it - the trash.
Browser? I’m on Chrome.
You should be seeing it since it’s not listed as “BETA” anymore.
I want to know what you’re using so I don’t have to see this ■■■■ anymore. LOL
I tried it when it first popped up. it effed me over so bad, I had to delete what I was trying to do and start over. I haven’t gone near it since.
I just had to load more pages and it’s there about half of the time.
I’m also using Chrome and adblock plus though I’m sad to report it’s not a 100% block now that I’m looking at multiple ASINs. Interestingly Rufus only appears when logged in for me albeit not consistently at this time.
Could also be something IT has running like Cisco Umbrella or SentinelOne. I’m sure there’s other things that I haven’t been told they’re using. Usually Umbrella blocks the entire page from loading though.
I tried while logged out and did not see Rufus even once. The “Looking for specific info” was the old version. When I’m logged in and Rufus does not appear I don’t see the old “Looking for specific info” either.
On a lighter note, those 2 lbs of cookies are estimated to arrive next Wednesday. I’ll definitely have to share next time I head over for a gathering with family.
Further experimentation with another blocker. Good news and bad news.
The good news! You can block Rufus with uBlock Origin’s custom blocker by right clicking and selecting block element. You’ll need to do it a few times for each of the parts of it. This carries over to other pages when viewing them. Once uBlock is installed right click what you don’t want to see and pick “block element”.
The bad news! uBlock is going to stop being supported and may stop working on Chrome. uBlock Lite which is the new version does not yet have a custom element blocker.
Edit: Edited for clarification. It may stop working on Chrome. It will still work on Firefox and non-Chrome/Chromium-based browsers.
They made a typo in the name of the program, it is not Rufus…
“Dufus” (1) that is what it is.
What a bad idea, for items we buy it makes many errors. Some errors are health and safety related. If you followed Dufus’s instructions, you could get hurt or worse.
For our manufactured products the input is inane, of little or no use. In some cases it will cause someone to order the wrong size item.
Note (1); Dufus noun. du·fus. less common spelling of doofus. slang. : a stupid, incompetent, or foolish person. Credit to Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
